Can you believe the month of September is nearly over? This past weekend featured the club picnic with MetroWest Dive Club, the Bay State Council Dive Club, and several others. Attendance was good, and the day turned out nice and sunny. Glad the rain that was predicted held off. Meg, Lauren, and Vinnie were very helpful in making the picnic a great success. Bill Werner was the hero for the day; Bill bought all of the food and drink, brought tables, and a grill. Not only did he set up, but he manned the grill all day for our members and other divers who paid to enjoy our menu.

We sold raffle tickets on 3 well priced items that we received from Bobby Boyle, and also had a bottle of cheer raffle. This combined with the monies paid by hungry non-members should go far to help cover the picnic's expenses. I was thrilled to find that I won the new dive fins, since on one of my recent dives I ended up with a wrecked split fin.

I want to remind club members of Undersea Divers year end sale Oct 1st, and 2nd. This is a great time to pick up year-end close out specials, buy great condition used gear, and other items you may need to restock.

It is time for members to consider running for office. Our Club election of officers will be held in November. It’s great to see the active new members shaping our Club’s future. The President's Banquet will be held on Saturday December 10, 2011 at our PCYC. Hoping we can get some of our past dual members to join us this year. Members have been enjoying various different dives all summer. I have had a great time lately diving regularly on Jim Durso's boat. Jim has so much experience, and truly knows the area and what to expect at each dive location.

For the Diver of the Month I choose Bill Werner for all of the work he did for us at the picnic. For Member of the Month I choose John Ferrier who for years has greeted people for our Sunday club dives while carrying our club banner to attract new members.

John P. Sears

Coming Club Events

Oct 13: “Open video night”

Bill Buckley presentation on How to Get the Perfect Shot (previously scheduled for 10/6) POSTPONED due to

Halloween parade in Salem. New date TBD.

Jerry Shine presentation (previously scheduled for 10/206) POSTPONED due to family illness. New date TBD.

-Dan at Back Beach. Undersea Divers had advertised a night dive Friday with Jerry Shine. Lauren, Laura and Amy were there. Good dive. Saw a big squid, a big eel, some pipefish, and some lobsters out walking. Amy got a picture of a tiny tropical fish.

-Vinny, Adam, Tony and Lauren at Back Beach on Monday post Irene dive, ~ 50F; vis was 3 inches to 30 feet, varying in bands. Lying on back at 20 ft could see flag on the surface, then vis would go back to almost nothing. 2 bugs, flounder, sea raven and a big anchor that looked old, but had modern rope and piece of rubber strapping on it; 20’ away, thick chain, really low and shallow. - They were approached by the harbormaster who told them they need to have 4” numbers on tank and flag. They’re out there looking, also watching for people switching bags at the edge of the water.

-John S, Jim D and Jim’s son at Tinker’s ledge. They dove to 72ft. Jim had 120 steel tank; John had an 80. Vis 15-20’; at 74ft, it was 48F. First two bugs for John for the year. Jim and his son had a 45min dive.

General Discussion:

-Maine: a 1647 ordinance states that you can traverse the intertidal lands (between high and low tides) for fishing, navigation or hunting even if on private property. Maine Supreme Court upheld ordinance 6-0, and it includes diving.

-Mike has hats and pins w/ Club logo for sale tonight.

-Mike’s Moments:

-Japanese tsunami is breaking off chunks of ice from Antarctica, largest about the size of Manhattan

Guests: 1 – Michael Metlock from Lexington, member of PCYC wants to dive with us

Secretary: Minutes read and accepted as amended.

Treasurer: we have money. We now can do online banking, and can take credit cards for payments. There is a fee of a few percent. Dues if by PayPal or credit card will be $45; dues paid by cash or check will be $42. We’re getting into the late 20th century now that we’re a decade into the 21st!

Correspondence – Email from former member Barbara Jones now in FLA; she says hello to everyone. Someone in the Club told her if she wanted to see a shark to bring a marshmallow, the next week she showed up with a bag with marshmallows.

Committees:

Program: (see calendar for more info)

-9/25-Club picnic and BSC Treasure Hunt at Stage Fort Park. The picnic is to be held in a general area, no specific location assigned, first come, first served.

Air Bubbles – October 2011

Of note: we have a really good projector and good speakers. You cannot hook up sound to the PlayStation. We may want to think about raffling off the PlayStation and get something better for sound.

-Membership: Mike Metlock who is visiting may join.

-Air Bubbles: The September issue is out! Lot of cool things that aren’t

Froggie events are in there. Read your Air Bubbles!

Announcement: Fred Calhoun wants to run some ads in AirBubbles. Fred will have boat in water for next 6 or 7 weeks. Raffle off one boat dive each week.

Old Business: Picnic – looking for volunteers. Ray will bring his grill. John can work on raffle prizes. We should check with MetroWest about if they’re bringing a grill.

Dive Talk:

-John F in Eastport after Irene. Viz was pretty bad; he lost Amy on a dive, could hear her, but not see her. Eastport is already not known for its viz. There are now 4 wolfish; a juvenile, Gene and his mate, and one named Pat that swims out and waits for you. Eastport is pretty sheltered. Amy got some good bottles. They made an outdoor theatre on the side of the barn and watched “The Deep.”

-John F, Jeff, Meg & Bill went to Lanes Cove; strong current, hardly any bugs, though John got 2. Saw Dan T and Genci who were there kayaking.

-Claus missed hurricane, was in Western Canada; he met his brother and family in Calgary where it was very dry and sunny. Started diving in the lakes, clear but no life. Last two weeks were on Vancouver Island; the water is like here but 5x as much stuff, with small starfish to ones that are 2 feet across with 26 arms. Great Pacific Octopus, wolf eels at 70’. They look mean but don’t hurt anything. Last dive at Victoria Ogden Point breakwater made with big chunks of granite. Claus did ~ 12 dives and highly recommends this

diving, though it was a little tough to the organize tanks. In some areas there’s a 30 knot current. Even if you don’t dive, Vancouver Island is a great vacation. 3 weeks total 4000km (2800mi).

-Dan & Lauren went out with Fred Calhoun last Sunday, Gap Cove, lots of bugs, tons of fish at 20’; then to

Folly Cove, not much there.

-Dan went free diving off Cocktail Cove of b-i-l’s boat; got lobster at 15’, and found an unopened beer covered in barnacles. They later drank it, it was fine.

-Tony, training, first two open water dives with a student; she did well. She was blown away seeing a skate.

General Discussion:

-Claus is looking for 2 120s; has 100s to trade.

-Dodie picked up a Jade plant of Paul’s to give to Pat and Annette. During the hurricane floods they went somewhere where they had leave the van because of high water.

Still haven’t been able to get it.

Bridge on rt 5 was closed over the Williams River. Bellows Falls Dam was open fully. Water has finally settled down. Westminster Bridge was closed for a while.

-Mike’s Moments:

-2 students 10 yrs ago at U Maine in Orono bred tropical fish in closet of their dorm room; they were selling clown fish at $100/ea. Got a grant at Taunton Bay, only place in NE breeding and selling tropicals. Started selling in 2003, when Finding Nemo came out. Most tropicals for sale have either been captured with poison or dynamite

-Undersea Divers sale Oct 1st and 2nd. Used bin has great deals. Bob is selling Paul’s stuff and giving the money to the family.

Old Business:

-If we sell the play station, probably won’t be too expensive to get some- thing new, something that can accept headphone jack. Mike made motion to authorize up to $100 to buy a DVD player to replace the PlayStation.

-Picnic coming up; need someone to purchase food, raffle prizes.

Dive Talk:

-Sunday dive Jeff & Graham at Pebble, only people there at first; viz poor 3-4 feet, short lobsters. Graham tried out new dry suit; it’s awesome. Just did one dive, surgy but it looked calm.

-Tony training dives at MIT Sat – the pool is the best he’s been to viz was outstanding!

-Lauren tried new fins in the pool; they’re fantastic.

-Dan w/ John S & Jim D Monday going for scallops Baker’s, Misery Channel. 15’ vis. Went in different directions. Combined they got one bag’s worth. Second dive between Big and Little Misery. 20’ vis but lots of algae blooms. Lots of bugs, but small and eggers. Found an anchor. Pulled up a really old weight belt,

Air Bubbles – October 2011

probably 40lbs lead. 2 dives over 60’. John’s backup BC didn’t inflate; had to drop bag and weights to get back to surface. Current was strong that day. Moral of the story, if you have old equipment you haven’t used in a while, make sure it works properly before you go to 70’.

-Dan day 2, House Island (deep side). 20-25’viz dropped to nil at 60’. Was in the shallows where a gorge turns into an underwater cave, 2’ crack at surface 25’ at the bottom. Didn’t have a light. 25’ in big round room.

-Dan, yesterday w/ Jim, Graves Island at the wreck of NH, could see the bottom clearly from surface; beautiful 35-40’ vis. Got some j-nails, saw big eggers. Met up with John Tooey. Jim did 2 dives, got a couple of lobsters. John T got 5 bugs total, but 4 got away. Jim had problem by end of third day, getting charley horses in backs of the thighs.

-Meg dove at Back Beach Sunday night, met up with some folks from a Facebook group and a Finatic.

Looking for squid, didn’t see any. About 20’ max, did an hour dive. First dive with the camera at night, defiantly different when you can’t see what you’re trying to take a picture of; got pictures of lobster tails; good dive.

-Ginny now has full set of gear and is looking to go to the beach and figure out how much weight she’ll need.

General Discussion:

-Jim, fishing, saw big fin in the water off Baker’s Island, thought it was a shark. It was an ocean sunfish, maybe 4-500 lbs; he got close to it.

-Mike’s Moments:

-3 guys staying in FL condo; one, a 23 yo former marine, was killed by an exploding tank. Story was from two different sources, but no mention of why the tank exploded.

-There is a website for getting kids interested in the ocean: adventuresofscubajack.com.

Dates left for raffles on Fred’s boat, this week is the 17th. No substitutions.

Raffles: Dollars Box: Jim Durso

Mystery Prize: Jeff Lynch

Bug Bag: Mike Denneler

22-Sep -2011

Meeting called to order: 8:06 PM Attendance: 4 Officers, 14 Members

Secretary: Minutes read and accepted as amended.

Treasurer: we have money

Committees:

-Program: (see calendar for more info)

-Picnic at BSC Treasure Hunt are this Sunday!

-Jerry Shine presentation is on hold due to family commitments.

-Bill Buckley presentation may be postponed because of Oct 6 Halloween Parade in Salem. (The easiest way to get to Salem in Oct: take Rt 1A from Beverly, stay left after crossing the bridge.

-Undersea Divers is having an end of season sale Oct 1st and 2nd! - Most of

Paul’s stuff going there to be sold in the next few weeks. Al Sauvageau says hello.

-Maybe over the winter we could have an “open video night” when members can bring videos and we can see some Sea Hunt videos.

-Membership: Dan Hering. When

Vinny was at Bob’s shop, ran into the person from PCYC who is interested in joining, seems ready to go.

-Air Bubbles: deadline tonight.

Old Business: Turns out Ray will be away for work this weekend; need to get another grill or someone to pick up

Ray’s grill. Bill may be able to help.

New Business: Club officer nominations are coming up soon; think about running for office.

Dive Talk:

-John M and his sister, on Easy Diver, went to the USS NH. Water was 58Fish viz fair; sister had a piece of the wreck caught on her catch bag, didn’t realize it.

-Claus at Dutch Springs two weeks ago, water 6’ higher than usual from the runoff from the storms, taking video of some students. Two days later he had bad ear infection from

-Lauren finished her advanced cert w/ Tony on Sat. Lauren was babysitting while Tony finished an open water class. Peter Ernst called a lot to bring over the boat. Plan: Lauren and Tony swim to the boat and get pulled in. Boat was pulled into the harbor by tide, toward the rocks. Went into water trying to find

60’; deepest they found was 57’.

Lauren saw a lobster, pulled it out of its hole to try to find 60 ft depth, gauge said 59’. Hit 60’ in lobster hole or divot next to it! (See sketch of evicted lobster below.)

-Maybe the Froggies will have a snorkel team for the BSC Treasure Hunt?

-Mike’s Moments:

-Since 2004 NOAA been making electronic charts, until this week, there were 2 different systems, one electronic and one paper; this week they go to just one system for both, transitioning to just downloadable e- charts; will be distributed by Coast Guard regions. – Claus noted that we are fortunate in the US to be able to download the charts; it’s not the same in other countries, even Canada.

Treasurer: we have money. Lauren took money from non-Club members; we will share some with MetroWest. We did have leftovers.

Correspondence:

-Email from Al Morris advertising a DUI Demo day in Portland ME on 10/15 (will be forwarded to Club members).

-If you get an email from John Sears with a subject line, don’t believe it.

He reuses previous emails. Note to John: You CAN change the subject line.

Committees:

-Program: (see calendar for more info)

-Both presentations on hold. Bill

Buckley doesn’t know when he will be available again, he will let us know. Jerry Shine, family issues.

-Do we want to have open-projector night on 10/13. Claus has something. Cenote video from Vinny. Sea Hunt video?

-Undersea Divers is having end of season sale Oct 1st and 2nd!

-Air Bubbles is in process

Old Business: Thank you to Bill Werner, Lauren, Vinny, John Sears for all the work done for the picnic. Ron donated a beautiful pen which Lauren won; Marlene donated a basket of bath supplies won by John’s mother; John S won the fins.

New Business:

-Dodie suggested we formally announce next year that we will support the local food bank. They really need “protein in a can”, i.e. chicken, tuna, peanut butter, etc.

Let’s make a more significant donation next year, and include in our plans for the picnic.

-Nominations for Club officers coming up soon! Think about it.

Dive Talk:

-Bill W 2 weeks ago at OGB, lousy viz. Found a gear net that was full of crabs; tried to cut some out but too hard. Otherwise nice dive, saw badge star.

-BSC Treasure Hunt was a nice event. One of the snorkel teams from Salem State U won the trophy for most treasure found. Mary was

“safety kayaker”, and won a pair of fins.

General Discussion:

-Great white attack in SAfrica; warnings all up and down the beach but a guy decided to swim and got mauled.

-Mike’s Moments:

-Someone bought the Nantucket Lightship, redone w/mahogany and cherry interior, now available for vacation rentals.

-Maine lobstering is a sustainable catch. One of the walls of the trap is biodegradable. Territories are assigned, if you invade another’s territory, your lines get cut. If you are caught stealing from another’s traps, lose license, boats and gear.

-Man In The Sea Memorial Monument Project planned to honor military divers, at navy yard in DC.

We will be seining; which is pulling a fish net through shallow water, up onto the beach, and discover all sorts of marine life, letting the children help gather the fish and marine life collected in the net. There will be a large touch tank set up, for all to enjoy, with lobsters, crabs, starfish, baby tropical fish, etc. As we gather out catch, let our experts teach you about the tropical fish you can observe in our on-site holding aquariums. There will be organized regular scuba diving as well as designated tropical collecting areas.

There will also be volleyball, music, silent auction, and of course diving and a great variety of food.

If you plan to attend, please contact Al Bozza at Programs@neadc.org so we can get a headcount.

DUI Dog Rally and Demo Tour

Portland, Maine

October 15, Kettle Cove Beach

Most of our Club members are familiar with the DUI Demo Days and Dog Rally at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, and some of you have been to the one at Dutch Springs in PA.

This year, for the first time, there will be one day of DUI demos near Portland, ME, at Kettle Cove Beach. Kettle Cove Beach is on Cape Elizabeth just south of Portland. There is easy access from the highways via Rt. 1 and Rt. 77. Admission to the facility is free and there is plenty of parking. You will see the DUI tents when you arrive.

The requirements are the same as for the same event in other locations. Bring your own air, your C-card, your license or credit card, weights, regulator, mask, fins and snorkel, etc. DUI can outfit you with drysuits,

It all started off as a fun day diving with Jim Durso, and Dan Hering. We left Winter Island and headed out around Misery Island. After a little discussion we chose a site between Big, and Little Misery Island. Our goal was to search for scallops, and if not found search for bugs too. I had brought my back up BCD to use since I had recently had a mishap with my everyday BCD.

Jim and Dan were first to jump in the water as there is room on the boat for just two divers to get ready at one time. They both dove with steel 120's, while I had my aluminum 80. I had figured that I would finish my dive first, and they could catch me on the boat soon after. I blew air into my BCD before entering the water. I jumped overboard and descended to a depth of 70 feet. Once at the bottom I tried to inflate my BCD with a little air and found that it did not work. I figured I'd do an easy dive, and when I got to 1500psi I would surface. I gathered about a half bag of scallops as I went along.

I hit 1500psi, and tried to start to surface kicking hard to leave the bottom. I went up about 3 feet, and then found myself standing on the bottom. I tried this once again with the same result. At this point I knew I was in trouble, and dropped my catch bag. I was able to start heading to the surface, my progress was a bit faster than before. I was not able to do a moment of hang time at 20 feet. I worried that if I stopped, I would sink down again. After getting to the surface, I tried to orally inflate my BCD. I ended up getting a small mouthful of water, and decided not to try that again.

I was a good distance away from the boat and the current and wind was pushing me towards House Island. Already tired from my earlier experience I didn't take long to decide to drop my weight belt. This helped me float better at the surface, as I started a trying swim back to the boat. My efforts paid off, and I eventually made it back on board. I was happy to climb back inside, and shed my dive gear. As I sat there thinking of my buddy, Jerry Sutherland, I grabbed a cold PBR. I enjoyed that cold beer, celebrating the fact that I had not drowned.

I share this experience with you, so that you might not make some of the mistakes that I did. Namely using gear I hadn't used in years, or even tested to see that it

would work properly. I had heard stories of divers drowning by not being willing to give up a scallop bag. I have been diving since 1988, and this was the first time that I had to drop my weight belt. Safe diving to all.

On Sat. the 17th (of September) the NSFC were invited to a great Redneck Party given by Shon-Bob and Laura-Sue in Pelham, NH. We had a great time with good “eat’ns” enjoyed by club members along with Shon and Laura’s families and friends. They had really pulled together a great atmosphere with toilet-lid horseshoes, Nascar banners, and one huge ice chest of a front-end loader to chill our moonshine in. As you can see by the pictures we had a great time, appropriately decked out for the redneck occasion. Grub was delicious! One contribution was a “turtle meatloaf” with sausage appendages and bacon shell. This delicious dish might rival Roslyn’s incredible artistic edibles she has brought to many parties. Fried turkeys, homecooked beans, and lots of other great dishes combined into a delicious feast. Here’s a few pictures taken at the party. Thanks Shon and Laura for putting on a great party.

Supporting and promoting the recreational diving community in Massachusetts.

The Bay State Council of Divers (BSC) is a diver’s advocacy group. The BSC monitors local, state and federal regulations that may affect the recreational diving community in Massachusetts. When required, the BSC represents the interests of the diving community in these matters.

The BSC serves as a liaison between dive clubs and dive stores to promote recreational diving activity in Massachusetts. All divers are encouraged to support the BSC with an annual contribution of $5. Your contribution will allow the BSC to continue to be a strong advocate for the recreational diving community in Massachusetts.